New Well to Further Student-Faculty
Research Into Local Water Quality by Dave Reid

January 30, 2003 :: No. 137

A 1,000-foot well was drilled on university
property adjacent to Yorba Linda Boulevard by Beylik Drilling
Inc. of La Habra. All services for the project were donated.
The well will provide study and research opportunities for geological
sciences students.

Geology majors returning next week to Cal
State Fullerton for the spring semester will be able to take advantage
of another learning resource, thanks to the generosity of a drilling
company and other sponsors who donated $300,000 worth of services
for a deep multiport monitoring well.

Drilling on the 1,000-foot well is scheduled for completion
Feb. 1. on a one-acre parcel of university-owned land located on
the north side of Yorba Linda Boulevard.

The monitoring well will provide a learning lab for
students who will study water and soil samples, as well as providing
much-needed information to the Orange County Water District, according
to John H. Foster, chair and professor of geological sciences.

The Fullerton campus is the only California State
University campus to have its own water well.

“The advantage of this,” said Foster,
“is that we can use the well for research and study any time.
Other campuses have to schedule appointments and make arrangements
with the owners of other wells for study and research purposes.”

Beylik Drilling Inc. of La Habra donated well-drilling
services. Work is scheduled to proceed on a 24-hour schedule until
the 1,000-foot depth is reached. The well was dedicated to Myron
Gutzman, a retired vice president of Beylik and a supporter of higher
education. John Kennedy of Beylik is the drilling operation supervisor.

William R. Laton, assistant professor of geological
sciences, is the project director. Last spring, he coordinated the
drilling of 130-foot monitoring wells near the big lake of the Fu
llerton Arboretum. Materials and labor for that project also were
donated.

The new monitoring well is deeper and more sophisticated than the
arboretum wells, according to Foster.

A monitoring well differs from a production well in
that water and soil samples are extracted from the monitoring well
and studied, noted Foster. A production well is one from which water
is pumped or gushes forth for drinking, irrigation or other purposes.

The new well is a multiport well, which means that
water can be monitored at various depths by opening the appropriate
port. Thus, water can be tested at a maximum depth of 1,000 feet
or at shallower depths. “This capability is significant because
water quality can vary at different depths,” said Foster.

The campus’s Hydrology Field Lab, a large motor
home equipped with sampling equipment, analytic tools and supplies,
is parked on the site and functions as a mobile office for faculty
members and research students.

John Riley of the Orange County Water District coordinated
the district’s involvement with the project, which will aid
in water quality studies.